Today I bring you one of the softest cookies you’ll ever taste. If you like chewy, soft cookies, then you must, I repeat, MUST, make these cookies! The sooner the better. They literally melt in your mouth and have such a unique and subtle flavor.

The cookies are just a tad bit crispy around the edges and have very soft and chewy centers. They are thick and puffy. I call them little vanilla clouds. Heavenly little clouds. And I mean, just look at them. They look gorgeous! Delicious on their own, but I add chocolate chips for taste and texture.

The ingredients in today’s recipe are pretty basic. Ones you’ll find in every chocolate chip cookie recipe, with the exception of instant vanilla pudding mix (which really brings the softness of the cookies to a whole different level). Naturally, it also adds more vanilla flavor (but not too powerful), which is always a good thing.

Now let’s talk about how you make the cookies and why they are so soft! If you ever searched for a soft cookie recipe online, you probably encountered one that contains cornstarch (and if not – good! because we will talk about it in the next chocolate chip cookies post). The cornstarch is added to cookies for extra softness. Adding even as little as a teaspoon can do magic. Too much and it will affect the taste (not in a good way). While there is no cornstarch in this recipe, it is hidden in the vanilla pudding mix.

As I said, making this recipe is very simple. You don’t even need a mixer! You start by melting the butter in the microwave. Next, whisk in the sugars and the egg and then add the dry ingredients. Easy, right?

Don’t over mix your cookie dough. As soon as the flour mixture is mixed, stop. Otherwise you will end up with tough cookies. At this point I recommend chilling the batter in the refrigerator for let’s say at least 30 minutes (or even up to three days if you want to make these ahead of time). If you don’t have the time, skip this step. While the batter is in the fridge chillin’ (literally) the flour absorbs the liquids, eventually resulting in a thicker cookie that won’t spread out while baking.

After you let your cookies chill, if they are too tough to handle, just leave them in room temperature for a few minutes before you start to scoop them onto your cookie sheet. You can use a medium ice cream scoop or just a tablespoon. I always bake my cookies for less time than what other recipes suggest because I like them slightly under baked (another secret for soft cookie centers). From my experience the most you should bake a cookie is 8-10 minutes and that’s it! (Unless, of course, if you make bigger cookies). They will appear as though they aren’t fully baked and that is ok. You will notice that by this point, the edges will have started to get a brown color.

Once out of the oven, leave them to cool for 10 minutes and then move them to a wire rack. If you touch them while they are fresh out of the oven, they will break.

In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Place the melted butter in a large bowl and whisk in granulated sugar, brown sugar and pudding mix. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture and mix just until combined. Do not over mix. Fold in chocolate chips.

Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes (or up to 3 days). You can skip this step if you want.

Preheat oven to 175C/350F degrees. Line pans with parchment paper.

If the cookie dough is hard to handle, leave it on the counter for a few minutes.

Bake for about 8-10 minutes, until cookies just begin to brown at the edges. Cookies will appear undone but will continue to bake on the warm baking sheet. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.Cookies can be frozen for up to a month.

ok In all the recipes I see about adding instant puddings to cookie mix, pleae tell me do you mix the instant using their instructions once mixed do you add them to the cookie mix or do you just add without mixing it? Pat

Shiran

April 28, 2014 at 8:29 am (3 years ago)

Hi Pat! All you need to do is add the pudding powder straight from to box to the cookie mix. You don’t need to prepare an actual pudding. Does that answer your question? If you need more help, please let me know 🙂

Shiran

August 19, 2014 at 6:46 am (2 years ago)

Hi Sarah! Do you mean while baking or while mixing? There shouldn’t be any problem with the chocolate chips not sticking to the batter. Once the batter is ready, you need to fold the chocolate chips into the batter using a spatula or wooden spoon. They will be incorporated well with the batter. Does it answer your question?

Shiran

June 23, 2015 at 3:47 am (1 year ago)

Thank you Elizabeth! You can make the dough, cover it with plastic wrap, and keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can also freeze it for about 2 months, then thaw it for a few hours in the fridge. Another options is to freeze balls of cookie dough, then bake it straight from the freezer. Baking time will take slightly longer in that case.

Found your recipe via Pinterest! (Yay!) These taste Ahhh-maz-ing! However, I followed this recipe exactly and my cookies came out flat as a pancake! I’m so confused! I let the batter chill overnight after my first batch went terribly wrong and they were flat. But same result. It’s so sad! Ha. Just wondering what could possibly be the reason!

Shiran

December 22, 2015 at 4:51 am (12 months ago)

Hi Amanda! I’m sorry to hear your cookies turned out flat, but at least they were delicious! The pudding mix should make them super thick, even without refrigerating. Maybe your oven temperature is off, did you preheat it? Or your baking soda may have expired. Next time you try it, when you shape the cookie dough balls, make them tall and not wide or flat, which should also help.

Hey Amanda, when you melted the butter did you wait for it to cool to room temp before whisking in sugar and egg? I did that once with a wholemeal choc chip cookie that asked for melted butter. I didn’t wait for it to cool, instead just dumped sugars in and mixed. It sprsead so much when baking, in some places it was just choc chip and no cookie! So maybe try waiting for your melted butter to cool if you didn’t do that the first time =)

Thanks so much for the response! Baking soda definitely not expired. And not sure about the oven. I did preheat but maybe something is off. That could be an issue. Ah-not even sure how to check that. I am going to give them another go!

Shiran

December 23, 2015 at 3:26 pm (12 months ago)

Baking is all about science and accuracy so sometimes it’s hard to know what exactly went wrong. Just to make sure – you mixed the ingredients by hand and didn’t use a mixer, right? Because incorporating too much air into the batter can also cause the cookies to spread. Anyway, give them another go, they’re worth it 🙂 Also, read this article on flattened cookies.

I haven’t made this recipe yet, but when I do, I want to make a bunch, I like to treat the folks at work. If I double the recipe, do I also add another box of pudding mix? Or will 2 boxes make the cookies too soft?

Shiran

February 13, 2016 at 8:32 am (10 months ago)

Hi Susan, I’m not familiar with Angel Delight, but from what I’ve read, it seems like this is the equivalent to instant pudding mix, so you can try that (or read what other people say, there are many threads about this subject). It’s not a cake mix, but a powder that is usually combined with liquid to create a pudding/mousse-like dessert (though in this recipe you only need to use the powder).

Thanks for getting back to me. It sounds like Angel Delight will do the job. I’ll have a go and see how they turn out. You’ve got some yummy sounding recipes on your blog so I’ll be coming back for more! ☺

Shiran

I LOVE this recipe and use it for every kind of occasion. However, I’m wondering how you would suggest taking this and turning it in to a peanut butter cookie? I want it soft and moist and thick like these turn out!

Shiran

March 15, 2016 at 7:42 am (9 months ago)

Hi Laura! Peanut butter cookies tend to have a different texture which is more heavy and crumbly than chocolate chip cookies. I suggest to try a different recipe for peanut butter cookies. This is my favorite classic one – it tastes amazing but it isn’t as soft as these chocolate chip cookies because there’s no pudding mix in there.

Baked once, they turned out flat and undercooked, so i thought i had done something wrong. Tried a new batch and followed directions closely but again flat, undercooked, and burnt on the bottom. Not sure why but disappointed since many reviews said they were perfect.

Shiran

May 4, 2016 at 2:20 pm (7 months ago)

Hi Maddy, I’m so sorry to hear that. I know how frustrating it can be! This is a pretty basic cookie recipe with a common temperature of 350F, so I’m not sure what went wrong. Do you bake often using that oven? The temperature can be off/too high in some ovens. How long did you bake the cookies for? Did you use all the ingredients in the recipe without changing anything? Did you try to refrigerate the cookies first? It really helps in baking thicker cookies!

Hello! Thanks for sharing this recipe. I made it years ago and went looking for it. Question: how do you think adding food coloring to the batter? I’m thinking about making them for a gender reveal party.

Shiran

June 27, 2016 at 5:10 am (6 months ago)

Hi Brittany! You can try it with small portion of dough to see if you like the result. Once dough is ready, add a little color with a toothpick and mix gently. Add more color if you want, a little bit at a time, until you reach the desired color. The color may look be a bit different after baking.

The hunt for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe is over! I’ve baked these cookies more times than I can count and they are so dang delicious that I HAD to find this post again so I could comment. If anyone has a problem with this recipe it’s because the butter was too warm when added to the sugars. This recipe is so easy and turns out amazing EVERYTIME! Thanks for sharing!